CLEVELAND: Justin Masterson is still an Indians starter, but he will finish out the season in the bullpen.

Manager Manny Acta said earlier that Masterson would be limited to 180 innings for the season, and when he got close he would throw the final few innings as a reliever.

""I didn't want him to get one more start then have him sit for the rest of the schedule,'' Acta said this afternoon. ""We can monitor the rest of his innings this way. He has eight to 10 left.''

Masterson has pitched 166 innings. He probably would have gotten to 172 or 173 if he had received one more start. Instead, he will head for the bullpen, not an unfamiliar place to him. Before he was traded from Boston to Cleveland in July of 2009, the Red Sox had determined that Masterson's best role was as a reliever after trying him as a starter and in the bullpen.

""We know he can do this already,'' Acta said. ""He did it for the Red Sox in a pennant race.''